Rihanna, Chris Want to Get Closer

Singer tweets, then deletes, response to controversy

(NEWSER) - Chris Brown—who really needs to learn to step away from the Twitter—lashed out at his critics in a rant on the social networking site that was predictably and quickly deleted. Brown, apparently upset with all the controversy over his Grammys appearance , tweeted a series of messages yesterday that culminated in this classiness: "HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY Now! That's the ultimate FUCK OFF!" More»

Tweet got talk show queen in trouble with Nielsen

(NEWSER) - We all know the Oprah Winfrey Network is struggling with ratings —but apparently the situation is so bad that Winfrey herself felt the need to tweet a request for viewers on Sunday night, as the Grammys were airing. "Every 1 who can please turn to OWN especially if u have a Nielsen box," she tweeted just before Oprah's Next Chapter aired. An uproar quickly ensued, with some slamming Oprah for "begging for viewers," Fox News reports. More»

Grammy Awards also go to Chris Brown, Bon Iver, and more

(NEWSER) - The Grammys got started with—what else?—a performance. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band did a rousing rendition of "We Take Care of Our Own" before host LL Cool J even made an appearance. The host brought up Whitney Houston's death first thing after thanking the band (click for more on that ). Then:

• Nope, it's still not time for an award: Bruno Mars takes the stage, then the first presenters appear—20 minutes into the ceremony. But Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt first perform a tribute to Etta James before presenting Best Pop Solo Performance to Adele for "Someone Like You."
• Next up: Another performance, this time the controversial first Grammys performance by Chris Brown since he beat Rihanna before the ceremony three years ago.

Sasha Pasulka asks: Is this really the message we want to send to women?

(NEWSER) - Chris Brown is performing tonight at the Grammys, three years after beating Rihanna the night before the very same awards show, and Sasha Pasulka thinks it's disgraceful. The story is being covered as if it's "an exiled prince’s return to a former glory," when in fact it's actually "an enormous 'f**k you' to every woman who has been, is, or will be on the receiving end of domestic violence," she writes on Hello Giggles . Worse, even during the immediate aftermath of Rihanna's beating, Hollywood failed to roundly condemn Brown. Instead, it "teetered on the brink of defending" him. The public response "was a full-blown tearing-down of female self-worth, an assault on any progress women have made in this country in the past 200 years." More»

1.1M tune in, but Winfrey will likely need to boost that audience

(NEWSER) - Oprah's new talk show debuted Sunday night, and just 1.1 million people watched. That may sound like a lot at first—and, in fact, it is the second largest audience for any show on the struggling Oprah Winfrey Network—but not when you consider Winfrey averaged 6.5 million viewers in the last season of her old daytime show, Piers Morgan premiered in Larry King's old slot to an audience of 2.1 million, and the History Channel's Pawn Stars averaged more than 5 million viewers last month. More»